We (who have been trying to reporoduce this drink) have used Licor 43 in many different attempts. It gets close, but does not produce a Ray's Mistake. Plus, was Licor 43 available in 1968? I don't know. This all makes me doubt that Licor 43 is the secret.

I need to look into Ti Toki. I don't think that is one I have ever used.

Also the rumor that the difference is gin: Wrong. The "mistake" was made when making an Anting Anting. The Ray's Mistake is sweeter than the Anting Anting. The difference is a syrup or liqueur that is sweet. That rules out Gin. If the Anting Anting is a Gin drink, then why is it on the Rum menu?

The Anting Anting is the key. Figure out what is in it, and then maybe you have a shot at decoding the Ray's Mistake. The difference is likely to be a single ingredient.

OK, here's my recipe... I think it's pretty close tasting from what I remember (months ago). I didn't get any coconut flavor when I tasted the original, so I ruled that out. I remember my drink had a reddish color, so I assumed Grenadine for this, but I added a touch. I still find the recipe below a bit too sweet, so an suggesstions are welcomed. This could also be the result of the homemade syrups I used.

I would try different rums above, and I will let you know which combos work best.
I like to use botanical syrups instead of simple sugar wherever possible in my own recipes, for more unique flavored drinks.

My recipe for Cinnamon Syrup is right out of Jeff Berry's "Sippin' Safari"
Just take 3 cinnamon sticks and crush them then best you can (I use the cinnamon sticks that are about 3" long). Then boil them with 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar, stirring occasionally. I let this sit overnight to get more cinnamon essence. The commercial syrups I found to be quite strong and overpowering, and making your own is pretty easy.

I still found my recipe for the "mistake" a bit too pineapple-flavored, so I am trying different combinations of juices to see what is best. Maybe drop the pineapple juice to 1/4 OZ. and add Grapefruit Juice 1/4 OZ. to the recipe. This may help counter-balance the sweetness of all the syrups.

well after watching Mike Jr. make about 20 of these drinks last night and taking notes this is all I can say.

half a jigger of a creamy color (orgeat color) thing
half a jigger of a reddish purplish color (watered down grape juice color) thingy, this one was thick, he kept on tapping it in order to pour it
half a jigger simple syrup
one jigger white alcohol
splash of soda
Coruba on top

After reading through Sippin' Safari and this thread, along with Tiki-Ti's online menu, I feel I have enough clues to give this a shot.
First of all, I live in Sweden and I have never tried any of the drinks I'm about to mention, but I hope someone out there who can visit Tiki-Ti can try it out.

Starting with what hiltiki says above:

half a jigger of a creamy color (orgeat color) thing
half a jigger of a reddish purplish color (watered down grape juice color) thingy, this one was thick, he kept on tapping it in order to pour it
half a jigger simple syrup
one jigger white alcohol
splash of soda
Coruba on top

Looking at the Dr Wong recipe in Sippin' Safari and comparing it to the above, you can notice the similarities. It seems that Tiki-Ti now uses gin instead of rum in their Dr Funk which would result in a recipe looking close to this:

It seems to me that the first three ingredients of the Dr Wong are most certainly included in the Ray's Mistake.

I have no idea how their Dr Funk is in relation to the Anting Anting, obviously there is rum included, and some kind of syrup is involved in order to have been mistaken by Ray. What I do know is that the Ray's Mistake has vanilla flavoring in it. This lead me to Donn's Spices #2, which is a mix of vanilla syrup and pimento liqueur. The pimento liqueur fits into the "botanical liqueurs" description on the drink menu. It seems to me that using a half ounce Donn's Spices #2 would result in a sweeter drink than if the syrup was just regular simple syrup or honey mix, which could explain the Mistake being sweeter than the Anting Anting. Since I have never tasted a drink with pimento dram, I have no idea if in fact it's easily detectable or not so I could be way off on this, but I urge the people who have tasted or can taste Ray's Mistake to try making the following at home, or at least use as a starting point.

Might be a good drinnk, but it will not be a Ray's Mistake. There is no pimento (allspice) in a Ray's Mistake.

There is also something yellow in there that Hiltiki missed. I think that the red stuff is probably the passion fruit, and Tonga Mix might be right although there is not nearly that much grenadine in a Mistake, if any at all (which I doubt).

But I think you are on the right track. The ingredients that Ray used at Tiki Ti no doubt had the same origins as the ones Don used at the Beachcomber.

I think I would feel a bit let down should someone actually crack the secret recipe. It has so much more mystique by not knowing exactly what's in it. This whole thing reminds me of the Da Vinci Code / Indiana Jones Last Crusade. Just sayin'.

I hear ya jingleheimer, but since I probably won't have a chance to taste the real thing, it would be nice if I could make it at home. I just want to taste it you know? At least I've eliminated allspice now.

On 2009-02-05 21:48, Shirow66 wrote:I hear ya jingleheimer, but since I probably won't have a chance to taste the real thing, it would be nice if I could make it at home. I just want to taste it you know? At least I've eliminated allspice now.

Well, maybe one of us can smuggle a mug full into a vacuum-sealed container and ship it overnight Or we can submit a sample to a lab that does mass spectrometry fingerprinting.